Memento
by Opinionated Asmodeus
Summary: Jason had always suspected that his family had been hiding something important from him. Something to do with the fact that he couldn't remember anything from when he was seven up until he was nearly sixteen.
1. V

Jason had always suspected that his family had been hiding something important from him. Something to do with the fact that he couldn't remember anything from when he was seven up until he was nearly sixteen. He could remember everything from a few years before he was seven, and everything after he was sixteen wasn't a problem either. It was everything in between that was a complete, massive blank spot for him. Strangely enough it hadn't affected everything he had learned in school, so he wasn't completely clueless.

The blank in his memories bothered him, so much so that whatever was missing had made him despondent that first year after the blank spot. The only thing he had ever cared about, and had seemed to help, was a small blue dragon plush toy. It was serpentine and about as long as his forearm now, and it was definitely old. His father loathed it's very existence, and Jason figured it had something to do with his missing memories. That idea made him cling to it even more, as if the toy could tell him everything, and he formed a habit of taking it everywhere with him. **That** pissed his father off to no end, but his mother had whispered something rather harshly to him one day that had his father laying off of the toy.

Nobody ever ridiculed him for having the dragon plush with him, something he suspected to be Grant's doing. It was like his older brother understood the importance of the silly little toy to him, probably even knew why he was so attached to it. Grant wouldn't tell him anything though, so Jason gave up on trying to find out what it was that he couldn't remember. He didn't even bother trying to see if Riley would tell him.

"I wish you could tell me, V." He gently ran his fingers over the soft fur of the dragon, taking care to not rub the old toy too hard otherwise it would start to bald. V, named so because of the bold, black V written on its information tag that was rolled and discolored, remained as silent as ever and just stared back at him with his now dulled glass eyes. "You probably remember everything I don't."

It would have been nice if V could tell him, because maybe then he wouldn't feel like he was forgetting something. Twenty-five already and no matter how hard he tried nothing ever came to him. Father was dead now and, as wrong as it was, Jason felt relieved because of that. V was probably just as relieved, considering there had been many an occasion when father had tried to destroy him.

"Tomorrow's the big day. We're moving in to an apartment in Santa Monica and it'll be just you and me, little guy." Apparently he had lived there before, during the blank in his memory, and it was the only thing his family had let slip to him concerning the past he was desperately trying to piece together. So it only made sense for him to go back.

Jason stroked the dragon plush a few more times before he carefully set V onto the motel room nightstand. He stared at the toy for a while, and when sleep finally claimed him it was with the hope that he would remember something when he got to Santa Monica tomorrow.

 _Memento_

There wasn't really much to do except get up, eat, go to work, come home, get high, eat and then sleep. Maybe even the occasional shower. Life was monotonous, had been ever since he was eighteen. Ever since he'd lost the only person who had meant the fucking world to him.

Today was almost the same as any other, only he didn't have to work. It was one of his rare days off, and he was usually placid as hell but something about today had him restless. Maybe it was the fact that someone had finally taken the apartment across the hall from his. Nah, that was stupid. It had to be from something else.

Still, try as he might, Vaas couldn't find it in himself to just sit on his ass all day. That restlessness was driving him up the fucking wall. He was nearly ready to storm out of his apartment when there came a ruckus from the hallway. A thud followed by raucous laughter.

"Give him back!" Someone shrieked, utter terror laced in their voice.

Vaas is curious enough to open his door and glare out into the hallway. He totally did not expect to find a white boy leaning against the wall that divided the hallway from his apartment. Said white boy had a look on his face that had matched the terror in the voice from not seconds ago. It also wasn't hard to notice that he had tears in his eyes.

"Fuck! You're actually crying over a goddamn toy? Oh, this is fucking rich!" Now there was someone he was familiar with.

"Felipe, what the fuck are you doing?" Vaas snapped, eying his neighbor from down the hall.

"Vaas! You have got to check this out, man!" Felipe waved something at him, too fast for him to see, and it had the white boy repeating his demand at an even higher pitch. Felipe sidestepped the white boy and tripped him as he lunged at him, then tossed the thing in question to Vaas. "This little bitch hasn't put it down not even once while he's been moving his shit in."

Vaas reflexively caught the item, which turned out to be a really old plush toy of a serpentine blue dragon. There's something agonizingly familiar about the toy, and he could have sworn that it looked exactly like the one he'd had when he was younger. The toy was obviously well cared for, even though the information tag was curled up and discolored.

"Give him back, please," the white boy sobs out, like the toy meant the damn world to him.

"Jesus fucking Christ! It's just a stupid fucking toy, you stupid little cunt. How fucking old are you?!" Felipe turns to the white boy and threateningly pulled out his switchblade. "I say we cut the goddamn thing into itty bitty pieces and burn it, Vaas. Right in front of his eyes."

Vaas ignores Felipe and gently uncurls the tag to the dragon plush. The bold black letter V on the tag has his blood turning to ice. He's now more acutely aware of the broken sobbing coming from the white boy in the hallway, and the ice quickly turns into a raging fire. "Felipe."

"So, are we gonna do it?" Felipe has a stupid smirk on his face that Vaas suddenly wants to beat in until he is fucking bloody, if not dead. His neighbor takes a good look at him and the smirk disappears. "Vaas?"

"Get the fuck out of here before I fucking gut your stupid ass." Vaas hissed the words out as he leveled his darkest glare toward Felipe. The stupid fucker has enough sense to do as ordered and scampers down the hallway to his own apartment. As soon as Felipe was gone he bolted over to the quivering, sobbing mess of white boy and knelt down in front of him. "Shh, it's okay. Here." Terrified green eyes stare at him, then go down to the dragon plush he's holding out.

The white boy takes the toy so gently and carefully that Vaas is one hundred percent certain he knows who this is. He doesn't say anything, just watches as the toy is carefully inspected and stroked, his heart feeling like it's breaking all over again with each second that passes. There hadn't been any recognition in those eyes, but he knows the toy, and he knows those eyes.

"Thank you." It's whispered so softly that Vaas barely caught it.

"Anything for you, Jason." Those huge green eyes flick back towards him and there's so much confusion in that tear-filled gaze that it hurts.

"H-how do you know my name?"


	2. Gift

Jason meekly sat on Vaas' living room couch and hugged V to his chest while Vaas paced around the living room. He seemed to be muttering something under his breathe in Spanish and he stopped every few minutes or so to look at Jason. The expression in his dark gaze never changed. There was a deep-rooted pain and sadness, and it made something deep in his soul ache. It was all so very confusing.

 _Don't you remember me?_

"I'm sorry I can't remember," he says it softly, but Vaas obviously heard him as he broke the strange pacing cycle he'd been on and was suddenly kneeling in front of him.

"No, no, no! Don't apologize! This isn't your fault, Jason." His hands tentatively settle on both sides of Jason's legs, careful to not touch him. It's almost as if Vaas is afraid that he would disappear if he were to touch him. "This is not your fault."

 _We grew up together, and we…_

Jason knows it isn't, but it certainly feels like it. Vaas knew who he was; remembered him so well that even after nearly nine years he still hadn't forgotten him. The question was why though? His thoughts are cut short by the soft jingle he has as his phone's ringtone. Vaas pulls away at the sound, leaving him to pull the phone out of his pocket, and goes back to pacing.

The caller ID notifies him that it's Grant calling, likely to check up on how his move in was going. He unlocks the phone and raises it to his ear, his gaze going to Vaas and following the man as he went back and forth. Like a caged animal. "H-hey…" The words get stuck in his throat, even though he's sufficiently calmed to speak now, so he coughs slightly to clear his passageway. "Hey, Grant."

"Everything going okay, J?" Vaas has halted again and turns to watch him, his gaze mostly on the phone.

"I'll be fine, Grant," he says without realizing, and he hears the sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line all too clearly. Jason knows it's too late to backpedal, because Grant has been protecting him for years from the bullying and ridicule.

"J, what happened?" Grant asks at the same time Vaas asks, "Is that your brother, Jason?"

Jason doesn't know who to answer first. His grip on the phone tightens and he immediately turns his gaze away from Vaas. He swallows thickly and hugs V to his chest a little tighter. Within a matter of seconds Vaas is kneeling in front of him again and very gently touches his unoccupied cheek. Jason allows his gaze to be directed back towards Vaas and he takes in the dark look on the man's face.

"Let me speak to him, Jason." Vaas carefully pries the phone out of his hand, and Jason doesn't have the will to stop him. He doesn't move from where he is kneeling as he raises the phone to his ear. "It's been a really long time, Grant, but I'm sure you remember who I am."

 _Memento_

There is a moment of pure silence on the other end of the line, then a sharp exhale and several curses. Vaas does his best to keep a neutral expression on his face, so he doesn't scare Jason, but he can't help the dark look that he is currently sporting.

"Vaas?!"

"Sí." Vaas can almost feel the anger pouring through the phone, anger that Grant Brody has no right to direct towards him. It is Vaas who has every right to be angry, for his own sake as well as Jason's.

"What the fuck are you doing near my brother, you sick fuck?! This is all-"

"Don't you fucking dare accuse me for this!" He hisses out, because he already blames himself when he knows it is not his fucking fault. "You don't know a goddamn thing except the lies your fucking parents fed to you. I didn't take advantage of Jason, ever!"

Confusion and traces of fear fill those huge green eyes while his little sweetheart tries to fill in the pieces. Only there's nothing to help him form the puzzle that is his memories. He's so heartbreakingly beautiful, and it just fuels the fire he feels towards Jason's family.

Vaas takes in a deep breath and ignores the vitriol that Grant is blindly spitting at him from the phone. Keeping his touch gentle, he brushes his thumb across Jason's jaw, happiness curling through him when he doesn't flinch away from the gesture. "I would never hurt you. Ever. _You are my heart, my soul and my everything._ "

Jason blinks owlishly at the Spanish then cutely scrunches his face up. The fear is thankfully gone. "What does that mean?"

Vaas knows he shouldn't take things too far when Jason doesn't remember anything, but goddamnit he's going to be selfish. "You mean everything to me, Jason. That's what that means." In not so many words.

"I do?" Jason frowns, his eyebrows furrowing slightly, and Vaas gives him a pained smile.

"I'm gonna help you get your memories back, Jason. I promise you that." Vaas rubs his thumb along Jason's jaw one more time then pulls away and returns the phone to his ear. Grant has thankfully gone silent, probably from having realized that Vaas wasn't listening to his shit talk. "Now, Grant, I know this might really difficult for you to understand, but I really care about your brother. Really, truly care about him, and it's been, what, nine years? Nine years is a very long time to care for someone who was taken away from you, but you wouldn't understand that."

"Like you know what we've had to go through!" The venom is still there, but Grant sounds more sedated now.

"Oh? I think I know perfectly well what you've had to go through, and it doesn't fucking compare. None of it compares to what your family did to us." Vaas growls and moves from the floor. Jason follows him with his gaze, questions probably burning on his tongue. At least he isn't scared anymore. "So what did they do to make Jason forget? They take him to someone, get him hypnotized? They get a procedure performed on him to remove the memories?"

"They didn't! They wouldn't hurt him!" Grant doesn't sound sure enough to convince Vaas, not that such a thing would have been possible.

"If that helps you sleep better at night, then keep thinking that." Vaas ends the call then holds the phone out for Jason to take. It's taken with a little hesitation and slowly pocketed. "I have something I want to show you, okay?"

"Okay." Jason says the word slowly, uncertainty in his eyes.

"I'll be right back." Vaas smiles faintly then goes into his bedroom.

 _Memento_

Jason doesn't know what he should make of Vaas, but the man seems sincere. Even if he is a bit rough around the edges. Sincere, protective, angry and so very sad. There was something else when Vaas looked at him, something he wasn't sure he wanted to name when he couldn't even remember the man.

It was several minutes before Vaas came back out of his bedroom, something held behind his back. He looks nervous, a weak smile on his face. "When we were kids I remember we used to drag these toys around with us everywhere. I had that dragon you now have, and you had this." He brings a stuffed tiger, slightly smaller than the dragon, out from behind his back. It's white instead of orange, and looks a little more worn than the dragon toy. "You had this when I first met you."

Jason stares at the tiger toy for a long moment and he knows it. He remembers having it from before. He wants to reach out and touch it, but there's a sharp piercing pain in the back of his head that quickly radiated outwards. He doesn't even realize that he's grasping at his head, which feels like its splitting open, and screaming. Before he knows it he's blacked out.


	3. The First Meeting

_July 19th_ , _1994_

Jason crouched low in the large leafy bushes along the sidewalk bordering his home, his tiger plush Snowy held to his chest. It was the middle of summer and he was waiting for his older brother to walk back from his friend's house in order to leap out and scare him. He'd been getting proficient at it; he'd even gotten his dad one time, but he didn't dare scare his mother or his little brother. So scaring Grant was his main option.

The sound of footsteps became apparent after a few minutes and Jason didn't move, otherwise he would have been noticed. When the owner of the footsteps was right in front of him he finally made his move and leapt out with a loud roar.

His target, who was not Grant, let out a shriek and fell backwards. Jason frowned as he took in the appearance of his unwitting target. He was a kid, probably a couple years older than himself, with a darker complexion than Jason himself, a head full of really dark brown that was short and styled up into an almost mohawk (the effect ruined by the fact that he had more hair than necessary), and had dark brown eyes that were wide and staring at him. He was wearing a red t-shirt, a pair of dark pants and a pair of black sneakers.

"Wow… You really scared me." The kid scrunched his face up slightly in pain then slowly sat up.

"I-I'm sorry! I meant to scare my brother!" Jason clutched Snowy to his chest, eyes wide with fear. He really hadn't meant to scare a complete stranger.

"Whoa! Don't freak out!" The kid quickly got to his feet and approached Jason. "I'm not mad or anything, so just relax."

"You aren't?" Jason eyed the other kid warily, who frowned at him.

"I just said I wasn't." He held out his hand for Jason to take, which was also eyed warily. The kid huffed and put his hands on his hips. "You are really cautious. I. Am. Not. Mad. I am trying to introduce myself to you."

"O-oh. Sorry." Jason gave an awkward smile then offered his own hand. "Jason."

The kid blinked then gave a snicker as he shook his head. "God, you're weird." He took Jason's hand regardless and shook it with a smile. "I'm Vaas."

"I'm not weird!" Jason pouted and pulled his hand back, once again hugging Snowy to his chest.

"Okay! Fine, you're not weird!" Vaas gave another huff but kept smiling. He looked Jason over and let his gaze linger on the tiger plush. "You like tigers, huh?"

Jason hadn't expected that particular question, but he nodded and found himself returning Vaas' smile. "His name is Snowy. Do you like tigers too?"

"They're cool, but dragons are more my thing." Vaas let his gaze go over to the bushes where Jason had been hiding. "So, you were trying to scare your brother?"

"Yeah. My older brother Grant. He's over at a friend's house and I was gonna scare him when he came home." He'd ended up scaring Vaas instead. That was how well that had worked out. "I can always scare him later though." There was no telling when Grant would be getting back, and it was rather warm out. "So what were you doing before I…"

"Before you jumped out and scared me? I was just walking around the neighborhood. We just moved here." Vaas stuck his hands into the pockets of his pants and looked back at Jason. "So how old are you?"

"Seven. Just had my birthday last week!" Jason gave a toothy grin, feeling more at ease now that they had started chatting.

"Ah. I turned nine back in March." So he was a couple years older. Grant was older than Vaas by only a year.

"Where'd you-"

"Jason!" A voice called, his mother's, interrupting the question he was going to ask. "It's time for a break!"

Jason frowned, unhappy at the interruption, and glanced towards his house. The frown didn't last though, since he got an idea and suddenly grinned at Vaas. "Come with!" He didn't wait for a response and bolted back through the bushes instead of taking the walkway.

"Jason! Don't run through the bushes like that!" His mother scolded before she noticed Vaas cautiously, and smartly, taking the walkway up to the house. "Is this a friend of yours?"

"We just met!" Jason beamed up at his mother. "Can he come in too?"

"Well wait a second Jason. You should introduce your friend to me first." Her tone was patient and she smiled when she noticed that Vaas was nervously shifting from foot to foot.

"Oh… Mom, this is Vaas. He just moved here!" Jason literally bounced in place while he gave his mother his best puppy dog eyes. "Can he come in too? Please?"

"Jason! Of course he can." She gave a small laugh at her son's antics then turned her attention to Vaas. "It's nice to meet you, Vaas. You can call me Mrs. Brody." She motioned for the two boys to enter the house, which Jason took as his cue to bolt inside. "Jason!"

"Thank you for having me over, Mrs. Brody," Vaas said politely as he walked in. He paused to take his shoes off, although Jason had already tracked dirt on the floor, and set them where the household seemed to put their footwear.

"So polite," Mrs. Brody gushed as she pulled the front door shut. "How old are you, Vaas?"

"I turned nine in March." Vaas looked around a little then up when he heard running from upstairs.

"Jason! Stop running in the house!" Mrs. Brody gave a frustrated sigh before she gave Vaas a smile. "Go on up. I'll bring you two something to snack on in a bit."

Vaas doesn't know what to say to that, and he isn't given a chance to because Mrs. Brody has swept past him to go down the hall. She disappears into a doorway, likely the kitchen, leaving him alone in the front hallway. With an apprehensive glance toward the stairs, he hears more running around upstairs, and decides that it wouldn't hurt anything to have some fun.

 _Memento_

To say that he was freaked the fuck out was a goddamn understatement. Vaas was well beyond freaked the fuck out and it was because Jason had suddenly started screaming, only for a moment, then passed out. It was several hours after that and he'd laid Jason out on his couch so he'd be more comfortable. He hadn't really budged from where was kneeling next to the couch, even though he was now miserably hungry. He was far too worried for Jason to move from his side. "C'mon, cariño. Wake up for me, please."

Jason scrunches his face up, as if in reaction to his plea, then groans as he starts to stir. It's a minute before he opens his eyes, pain etched into his expression. "Holy mother of fuck, my goddamn head is feeling like its splitting open," he groans out as he shifts to sit up.

"Easy there, cariño." Vaas is quick to help Jason sit up, his worries ebbing slightly because the younger man is finally conscious. Never mind the fact that Jason seems to have had an extreme shift in his personality.

Jason scrunches up his face again, likely due to the pain he had mentioned, and studies Vaas with a vaguely curious expression. Silence seems to reign over them for several long minutes when something akin to recognition flashes in those green eyes. "Vaas? Is that you?"

Vaas can't believe it. Not even mere hours earlier Jason hadn't remembered him, and he hopes to God that this isn't some cruel trick the younger man is pulling on him. That would be too much, and taking it too damn far. "Si, cariño." His voice comes out in a near whisper, but Jason definitely heard him.

There's an unexpected flash of anger in those green eyes, effectively making them seem poisonous, and Jason growls at him. "What the fuck happened to me and why the fuck did it take you so long to find me?!"


	4. Fast Friends

_Late July 94'_

Vaas found himself over at the Brody household almost every waking minute to play with the slightly younger Jason. He was rather surprised that Mrs. Brody hadn't minded, in fact seemed delighted to have him over despite the age difference between the two of them. Jason didn't care at all, and dragged him all over the neighborhood from the time he got there to about lunchtime.

Right now they were at the park several blocks away from the street they both lived on and Jason was darting through the large maze-like wooden structure that took up a good portion of the park area. The seven-year-old was quite fast for his age, but Vaas didn't have any trouble keeping up with him. Twist around a corner, climb some stairs, down a ramp, under a bridge, up another ramp, climb a ladder. It was nearly endless.

By the time Jason stopped they were in the center of the complex play area and in a tower that looked over the entire playground. He could even see the tops of their houses from here. "You must play here a lot." Jason had found his way to this tower without having to stop and orient himself.

"My dad brought me here a lot, but he's not here right now." Jason hugged the ever present Snowy at that and peered over the safety railing towards their homes. "He's in the army. Grant says he wants to do the same thing, but I want to go on adventures!"

Vaas didn't know his own father. At home it was him, his mom, his little sister and his stepdad. Mom fussed over his sister all the time, calling her princess and other sorts of nonsense. Citra was just about the same age as Jason and definitely acted like the princess their mom called her, spoiled and bratty. His stepdad worked all of the time, so he was hardly around to keep that in check. Vaas just didn't want to deal with that, so having Jason leap out at him like he did was a blessing in disguise.

"What kind of adventures?" He picks a corner and sits down, seeing as it looked like they were going to take a break.

"I want to climb mountains, explore jungles and go diving in the ocean." Jason drops down in the middle of the floor, Snowy relegated to his lap. The tiger plush was miraculously clean for all it went through with Jason.

Vaas had vague memories of a place just like that, where he and his sister had been born, but they had moved around his fifth birthday because the state of the Islands had gotten horrible. How his mother and stepdad had managed to get them out of that place, which they never talked about, wasn't even a thought that occurred to him. Most of his memories were of living in the US. "Sounds like it'd be fun."

"What do you want to do?" Jason's question is as enthusiastic as the description he gave for his idea of adventuring.

"Never really thought about it." Not at all, in fact. Too busy with moving from place to place, till his mother had sworn that this was the last time. Too busy trying to acclimate from school to school, making friends only to lose them. Hopefully this was the last time. Jason was interesting, always active and enthusiastic about almost everything. "I don't know."

"That's okay. You can join me on my adventures if you want." Jason beamed at him, utterly confident in a future where they'd still be friends. It was..nice.

"We'll see." He grins back, purposefully ignoring the possibility that he could be moving again within a year's time. "So what are we going to do today?"

"My mom said something about the zoo this afternoon. She said you can come with! Grant gets to bring a friend too." Jason is all movement even when sitting down. It's like he can't stay still. "Do you want to come?"

Vaas would love to go, but he isn't so certain how his mother will react. Chances were she wouldn't care, and that was slim at best. Worst case scenario, he wouldn't get to go and would get chewed out, but it wouldn't hurt to ask. "Yeah. I have to ask my mom though."

Jason blinks then beams, certain that the answer will be yes. "You can call her when we get back to my house." With that declaration he bolts up, their rest apparently over. "C'mon!"

 _Memento_

Jason peered at the Komodo Dragons in their exhibit from behind Vaas while he hugged Snowy to his chest. They had decided to visit the reptile house first, and while he was fascinated by the largest of the Monitors, he was also scared. They looked mean.

"They don't breathe fire or anything, and they can't get out on their own," Vaas commented and tried to move from in front of him. Jason wasn't having that, not one bit. This drew a sigh from Vaas who turned around instead and smiled at him. "They aren't real dragons."

"Yeah, J, stop being such a baby," Grant cut in with a scowl. Mom wasn't close enough to hear the jab, but then Vaas was there.

"Don't make fun of him for being scared!" Vaas rounds on Grant with a dark scowl on his face then moves to put himself between the two brothers. "Say you're sorry!"

"Why? He's being a baby!" Grant continues to scowl and glower, while his friend backed away from what might become a fight.

"What's going on over here?" Mom asks sharply as she comes over with Riley in his stroller. She looks between Grant and Vaas, then at Jason and seems to come to the conclusion on her own. "Grant Brody! Are you picking on your brother?"

"I-" Grant looks away from his mother with a scowl and a flushed face. He was caught with no way out except to tell the truth. "Yes, mom," he said it as softly as possible, but Mom still heard him.

"You know better, Grant, now apologize to Jason." Mom gave him _the look_ , a scowl that made Grant wilt under her gaze.

"I'm sorry." Grant, abashed, kicks at the ground with his muttered apology.

"Grant." Mom's tone has taken on a note of warning, a hand going to her hip.

"I'm sorry for picking on you because you were scared, Jason." Grant speaks up this time, but he's still looking at the ground.

Jason peers at his brother from his comfortable spot behind Vaas, who seems to have become his shield, then he looks to his mom. "Can we go somewhere else?" He edges around his friend, putting Vaas between himself and the Komodo Dragon exhibit once more.

"Can we go see the tigers?" Vaas adds, giving Grant one last scowl.

Mom looks at each of them then gives a weary smile. "Let's go look at the tigers then."

 _Memento_

Vaas subconsciously puts himself between Jason and Grant after the slight tiff in the reptile house. While the Komodo Dragons had been cool, Jason's fear of them had been more than obvious and Grant… Big brothers weren't supposed to do that. They were supposed to protect their younger siblings, not hurt them.

"They're so big!" Jasonu gushes as he stares down into the Sumatran tiger enclosure. His entire expression is so very bright, like today is a collaboration of his birthday and Christmas rolled together.

"Good thing Snowy isn't that big, right?" Vaas glances at the white tiger plush dangling from Jason's hand by a paw. "Otherwise you wouldn't be able to take him with you everywhere." Though it certainly wouldn't be from a lack of trying.

"I could use him as a pillow if he was that big, but I like him like he is." Jason hugs the tiger plush then looks back down at the Sumatran tiger exhibit. "Snowy's the best kind of tiger."

"Yeah, he is," Vaas agrees and gives the tiger exhibit another glance. One of the tigers is laying out on a boulder while the other has decided to go swimming.

"Come on kids," Mrs. Brody calls for them after a few minutes, prying them away from the tiger exhibit.

 _Memento_

His head still hurts, more specifically just to the right at the base of his skull in the back of his head. The pain was reminiscent of having something sharp stabbed there, and from there it radiates outwards. He suspects he knows why. A crisp and clear memory, just like all the others that had been _lost_ , surfaces, and it pisses him off to no end. He shouldn't be mad at Vaas, really he shouldn't. He can't help it though.

"You think I didn't look for you, Jason?! I did, but it's like you and your _family_ up and disappeared!" Vaas takes hold of both his hands, his grip tight, as if he were going to disappear. "Baby, if I had known where you were, even if it was a shred of a rumor, I'd have come for you." The sheer guilt and pain in Vaas' voice is enough to curb his anger, at least temporarily. "You said your head hurts, right? Where?"

Jason frowns then twists his right hand in Vaas' left to break the grasp his boyfriend, if he can even still call him that, has and reverses the grip. He guides Vaas' hand to the spot where the pain is originating and presses his fingers to it. "Feels like I'm being stabbed," he mutters, letting his hand fall away from Vaas' while the older man sucks in his breath sharply.

"You- Jason, you could have died. Jesus fucking Christ, you could have fucking died!" Vaas gets up from the floor and pulls him up off of the couch to wrap his arms around him, face pressing into Jason's neck. It's at that point that he realizes that he's taller than Vaas, but he doesn't mention it. He's currently more concerned about- "They had a fucking **illegal** procedure performed on you?!"

Well, Vaas certainly seemed to know what had been done to him. "I don't remember the whole procedure thing. My dad had me sedated and then bam, felt practically dead inside up until now." As for the whole could have died thing… He didn't want to think of that on top of everything else.

"Your father-"

"Is dead. Thank god. I don't think I'd have been able to move here otherwise." Jason tries to pull back but Vaas stubbornly tightens his grip. "Goddamnit, amante, let me-" Vaas' mouth is suddenly on his—crushing and desperate—cutting off his demand to be let go. He still tastes like peppermint and spices, but there's another distinct flavor. Smoke. He gets lost in that semi-familiar taste, lost in the kiss and subconsciously loops his arms around Vaas' neck.

Vaas breaks the kiss after a couple minutes, leaving Jason thoroughly out of breath and nearly dazed. "Please, Jason, don't… Don't tell me to let you go. Mi corazón."

"Mi alma y mi todo." Jason smiles warmly, tears in his eyes, and touches his forehead to Vaas'. "Even when I couldn't remember you I still fucking missed you."


	5. Wartra

_Early August 94'_

He beams as he holds out a blue dragon plush at Vaas, the nine year old positively gobsmacked into silence. "He's for you," Jason explains, waving the dragon slightly when Vaas doesn't move to take the offered plush toy.

"I- really?" Vaas gently plucks the serpentine dragon plush from his hands and examines him with a sort of reverence unbecoming of a typical nine-year-old. The plush is turned over in his hands, several times over the span of a minute, and the elder of the two boys smiles.

"Do you like him?" Jason asks with a cautious smile.

"Yeah, he's awesome." Vaas holds the dragon still in his hands now and looks up from the toy to Jason.

"What'cha gonna name him?" Jason bounces with barely contained excitement, his exuberance not even phasing Vaas in the slightest.

"Well," Vaas starts and looks down at the dragon plush again. "I think I'll call him Wartra."

"Wartra…. I like that name. Think he'll like Snowy?" Jason briefly thinks of his tiger plush up in his bedroom, tucked under the sheets on his bed. He'd left him there while his mother had taken him out to pick out Wartra for Vaas.

"Of course he'll like Snowy. Why don't you go get him and we can go play?" The smile that split Jason's face was brilliant and the younger boy yipped in excitement before he practically jetted up the stairs to fetch Snowy.

 _Memento_

"What is _**this**_?!" his mom hisses as he walks through the door later that afternoon, and snatched Wartra out of his hands. She all but shoves the dragon plush into his face and waves it. "What is this, Vaas?"

Typically he is deathly afraid of his mother, who obviously favored his half-sister over him, but today he's angry. Wartra had been a gift for him specifically, and he knew what his mom intended to do with the plush. Well, he isn't going to let her give Jason's gift to him away to his sister, or worse, let her destroy it. Without giving any indication or warning he yanked the dragon plush out of her grasp and shouted, "He's mine!" In that same moment he ducked around her and bolted for his room.

"You little bastard!" She shrieks out and made a grab for him that missed. Her steps are heavy as she chases after him, but he's faster.

Vaas slams his bedroom door shut behind himself and locks it, thankful that his mother hadn't had the forethought or removing the doorknobs or getting ones without locks. He knows this will only make it worse for him, especially since his stepdad wasn't going to be home for hours and he was certainly going to miss out on supper. Well, more like his mother would withhold it from him as punishment for daring to act out, on top of any expected beatings.

His doorknob rattles as his mother attempts to open it, then the banging starts. "You better open this fucking door right now, you ungrateful little shit!"

He backs away from the door, Wartra clutched to his chest, and stares at it as it shakes in its frame with the angry pounding its receiving. He swallows and holds his dragon plush tighter, wishing that he were anywhere but here right now, that he was back at Jason's.

"Open this goddamn door right now, Vaas," his mother roars and the pounding intensifies.

He looks around his room, which has no other form of… wait, the window! He runs over to his bed and climbs onto it to kneel in front of the window looking out into the backyard. Wartra is deposited onto the bed beside him before he attempts to lift the window open. It doesn't budge, and after a minute or two of trying to get it open he leans back to look at the window.

A sharp crack comes from the direction of his door, like something is breaking, and his mother's yelling has become unintelligible screams at this point. He scans the whole of the window and finally notices the latches to keep it locked. He turns both of them then pushes up against the top of the lower pane's frame. It slid up easily this time, so he grabs Wartra and without a second thought he lowers himself to the ground a few feet beneath his window.

 _Memento_

They had just sat down to dinner when the doorbell rang. Jason frowns at his plate, which had peas on it, while Mom got up to answer the door. He pushes a few of them into the mashed potatoes with his fork then scooped up the mixture and ate it with a shudder. He could still taste the peas.

Several minutes pass by before his mom returns to the kitchen, Vaas in tow, and he's made a dent in both the peas and the potatoes on his plate. He drops his fork in surprise, because his friend had gone home for the evening, and a bright smile starts to take over his face. Vaas doesn't smile back, instead he takes a seat beside Jason and looks down at the table.

"Vaas will be staying the night," Mom says with a sorrowful cheeriness as she fixes up another plate of food. She places it in front of Vaas with a gentle smile then takes her seat next to Riley in his high chair. The three year old has no qualms with eating his peas, as evidenced by the lack of them on his plate, but he's taken to mushing his mashed potatoes with both hands before pushing globs of it into his mouth.

"Can I have a friend sleep over too?" Grant asks around a mouthful of pork chop, his gaze shifting from Jason to Vaas.

"Grant, don't talk with food in your mouth, and we can make plans for you to have a friend over tomorrow night," Mom answers softly, sounding a little weary.

"Sorry, Mom," Grant apologizes sheepishly after he finally swallows his food. He accepts the compromise without further argument and starts wolfing down the rest of his food.

The rest of dinner is uneventful, though Vaas remains quiet throughout the meal much to Jason's confusion. It's only after they're done eating and having helped clear the table when his friend tugs on his sleeve to get his attention.

"Can we go up to your room?" Vaas is oddly soft-spoken with his question and he fidgets slightly as he waits for an answer.

"Yeah," Jason says with a subdued smile. "Are you okay?" The question slips out unintentionally as he leads the way to the stairs. He's worried that Vaas won't answer him because he goes quiet again, so he stops when they reach the steps and turns to face his friend. He spots Wartra sitting to the side on the third step up and his expression brightens. "You brought Wartra with you?"

"Yeah, I… Can we go up to your room first?" Vaas' tone takes on a pleading note as he picks the dragon plush up and cradles it. "I don't want to talk about it down here."

Jason's expression twists into a faint frown but he nods and heads up the steps with Vaas trailing closely behind him. Once they're in his room Vaas shuts the door while he goes and fetches Snowy from off of his bed. He had the feeling that his tiger was very much needed and so he planted him on top of Vaas' head once the nine-year-old had dropped to the floor.

 _Memento_

He blinks owlishly in surprise then gives a smile that feels real and happy. His entire mood had lifted with Jason's simple act of childishness, so he huffs and pulls Snowy off of his head. "Thanks, I needed that," Vaas half-murmurs as he places their plush toys onto the rug between them.

"So you're okay now?" Jason's question comes from a place of innocence and concern, his eyes crinkled slightly with his worry over Vaas' wellbeing.

"Yes, I'm definitely okay now, weirdo," he answers with a grin that Jason returns. He leans back and presses his hands against the floor behind himself after a moment, and sighs softly while his expression turns somber. "My mom tried to take Wartra away. She was going to take him away and give him to my sister or destroy him. I took him back and ran to my room, cause if I didn't she would have hit me too. I got out through my window while she tried to bust down my door."

Jason stares at him with a wide-eyed expression of shock, and it's clear that he doesn't quite understand all of what he's been told, with one exception. "But Wartra is yours…. I got him for you?"

"Yeah, I know, but… Well, my mom isn't very nice." That was quite the understatement, but Jason didn't need to know about his home life. He had no intention of inviting his friend over and subjecting him to what would be the racist grumblings of his mother. He liked Jason, and his family, but his mother didn't share the same sentiments. He had told Mrs. Brody as much and she had been so very understanding.

"Is that why she wanted to hit you?" Jason's voice is almost too quiet for him to hear, like he doesn't want to ask that particular question.

The truth is too painful to tell, at least for now, so he ducks his head and nods in response. He can't tell Jason that his mother thinks of him as some sort of mistake made in a drug-ridden ritual that was far too common on his birth island. She had gotten it into her head that he was supposed to be some sort of super warrior that was meant to lead their people to salvation, and though he didn't have memories of the time himself, his mother certainly made it clear how much of a disappointment he had been and still is.

"She's a mean lady," Jason suddenly decides, breaking Vaas out of his thoughts. "If Wartra can't go home with you then he can stay here with me and Snowy, so the mean lady can't get him!" Jason puffs up with his indignation and scoops both of the plush toys up. "We'll protect him for you, Vaas."

In that moment something twisted free inside Vaas, something that had almost been ground out of him by his mother's awfulness born out of her anger and hatred of him. It was fragile, but warming and welcome all the same. He had hope, and it came in the form of a green-eyed, brunet-haired seven-year-old boy with a brilliant smile and a fiery spirit. "That would be great, Jason."

 _Memento_

He feels like he's in some goddamned cheesy romance flick with how damn sappy he feels, but he doesn't care one fucking iota. He has his Jason back and there isn't a force in the world that can convince him to let go of the brunet spitfire. Well, with maybe one exception. Possibly two.

"Vaas." Jason's tone has that edge of warning to it, one that he knows better than to ignore. People have gotten hurt for ignoring that tone, so he definitely knows better than to ignore a brilliant neon warning sign.

"Yes, Jason?" He reluctantly lets go of Jason, flashing him a smile of feigned innocence, to which Jason huffs irritably.

"You can be clingy later, amante," Jason half grumbles and nudges him away to get up from the couch. He's steady on his feet, which is enough to make Vaas back off and give him space. "Now where's your bathroom?"

Ah. Excepión número uno. "Over there." Vaas waves his hand in the direction of the bathroom, which elicits a scowl from the native Californian. "What?"

"Over there could mean the corner for all I know," Jason grouses half-heartedly as he heads to the bathroom.

"Well, if you _want_ to go in the corner you can, cariño, but you'll be the one to clean it up," Vaas teasingly calls after him and chuckles when Jason gives him the middle finger before he disappears into the bathroom. He rocks onto his feet and stands up, his stomach reminding him once again how hungry he is. No doubt Jason is just as hungry, and from what he remembers, Jason gets **hangry**. Excepión número dos. "Hey, baby, you hungry?"

The sound of the bathroom fan turning on is his response so he shrugs and wanders into his kitchen, which despite knowing it is more barren than the Atacama Desert he opens the fridge and frowns. Partially full beers, a pizza box and something that looks alive. He suspects the pizza box is empty, doesn't dare mess with the pinkish-green growth and shuts the door with a languished sigh. The cabinets contain only crumbs, much to his vexation, so take out it is.

He pulls out his cellphone and wanders back into the living room. He drops onto the couch and brings up a list of nearby takeout places. He subconsciously skips over the pizza joints and spends several minutes debating over Chinese or Thai. He glances up from his two options just as Jason comes out of the bathroom. "You want something to eat, cariño?"

"Food sounds good." Jason drops onto the couch next to him, smelling of the tropical spray he keeps in the bathroom. "So what's on the menu?" He peers at the phone, leaning heavily against Vaas as he does so.

"Chinese or Thai?" He turns the screen towards Jason and shifts his arm to drape it across his boyfriend's shoulders. "Or would you like to get something else?"

"Shrimp pancit and beef lumpia?" Jason manages to give him a pleading look, and it's apparent that he's practiced this because damn is it effective. Awkward head position and all. Not that he needed to give him that look in the first place.

"Cut that shit out, Jason. You already know I'm going to say yes." Geez, what a way to make him feel like he had kicked a puppy.

A sly grin steals over Jason's face and he turns more towards Vaas to lean in and kiss him. It's brief, and Jason nips at his lips before pulling away looking utterly triumphant. "You know me so well, amante." He leans in again, like he's going in for another kiss, but stops before their lips touch. "Now let's go, I'm starving."

Vaas groans as Jason pulls away, the goddamn tease, and gets up. "You're lucky I don't want to have you get all hangry on me, Jason, or we would not be going anywhere." He follows after his boyfriend, leaving their old plush toys on the couch sitting next to one another.


End file.
